trash production

Baby Wipes

September 2, 2011 by laceyswartz 2 Comments

Last week, we hit the store with three different school supply lists for the elder three kiddos, and it was a really strange feeling buying all the disposable paper goods. It’s been a while. The hardest one for me was the baby wipes. I haven’t found a disposable wipe yet that I really like, which I guess is why we use cloth wipes as much as possible.

And before we go any further, this post isn’t just for people with babies. Lots of people use baby wipes for all sorts of purposes. But is there a really good disposable wipe out there that takes best possible care of people and planet?

A few months ago, at the request of a friend, I dug a little deeper into baby wipes, only to be left more compelled toward cloth than ever. I had already known about many of the questionable ingredients in the solutions in which commercial wipes are soaked, but I had never realized that the wipe material itself is often made out of non-biodegradable polypropylene. While this type of plastic can often be recycled in container forms, it can’t be recycled in its used wipe form – especially not if it’s smeared with baby poop.

Goodguide.com ranks Natracare and Seventh Generation as the top two options. But I was surprised to see ‘parfum’ and some of the other synthetics in Natracare’s solution ingredients – it appears to be the cotton wipe that’s organic, not the solution. The 7th generation wipe has a better solution, but the wipe is plastic. Poking around online some more, Walmart has an organic cotton wipe, but the solution has propylene glycol, PEGs, formaldehyde-donating ingredients, etc.

Cloth wipes are SUPER easy. We found the easiest option was to cut up a flannel receiving blanket (the kind you swaddle newborns in) into small squares. And most of the time, we just use water to wet the wipes. We only use a ‘potion’ when there is a touch of irritation (the Miessence baby bottom cleansing gel works really, really well. Clears up irritations quickly and lasts a long time since a little goes a long way and we use it sparingly anyway).

We’ve gotten pretty used to taking our cloth wipes out with us on the go, but there are times when disposable wipes come in handy. Has anyone out there found a disposable wipe that is both organic cotton / biodegradable and free of all the synthetic chemicals – either for personal use or to send in as an alternative for filling the school supply lists?

Cloth Diapers

November 2, 2010 by laceyswartz 4 Comments

Similar to my homemade baby food post (Oct. ’10), this is meant to be a simple post of encouragement to anyone considering cloth diapering.

Really, if you’re thinking about cloth diapering for the first time, it’s not the nightmare you might imagine. It’s not the same as when your mom cloth diapered you – or your grandmother cloth diapered your mom. Cloth diapers have come a long way since the days of pins and rubber pants, and the benefits are huge:

#1- Safer and gentler on your baby’s skin. Cloth diapering keeps the absorbent chemicals of disposables away from that cute little tush, which is important since the skin absorbs so much of what it touches. Another perk? Fewer diaper rashes.

#2- Huge cost savings. Though I can’t recall now where I got this statistic, I think I’ve heard that the average disposable-diapered child will cost his parents between $2500-$3500 in diapers over the course of 2-3 years. Cloth diapers are certainly a bigger expense up front, but much less expensive over time, particularly when you consider the multiple child usability factor. We’re about to put baby #4 into our same set of FuzziBunz. You can do the math on that. Under $1,000 vs $10,000? And if budget is an immediate concern, you can always ask for your cloth diapers as gifts from people. We got ours as major Christmas and birthday presents from family, instead of having to buy them ourselves.

#3- Significantly cuts down on environmental waste. Cloth diapering doesn’t just keep the disposable diaper itself out of the waste stream, but consider also the chemicals inside the diapers and the plastic bags often used to contain diaper stink when placing them in the trash or ‘odorless’ diaper pail systems. Don’t buy into the myth about your water and electric bills skyrocketing if you choose to cloth diaper. I think our water bill went up about $5 a month, maybe? And the electric bill, I’m not sure, but it couldn’t have been much because: a) I didn’t notice and b) we line dry our dipes most of the time.

As with homemade baby food, cloth diapering is so worth the little bit of extra effort – worth it for your baby, for you, and for the planet. If you want to cloth diaper, but just need that little bit of friendly encouragement… “You can do it!” 🙂

Homemade Baby Food

October 4, 2010 by laceyswartz 5 Comments

A post of encouragement to all my fellow moms and soon-to-be moms of infants…

Making homemade baby food was one of my first green lifestyle choices. How about you? Despite what many instinctively think, making your own baby food is not that hard. Seriously, I am one of the most ‘culinarily’ challenged people on the planet. My husband does most of our cooking because he really enjoys it, whereas I can just get by when I have to. But I make the baby food in our house, so if I can do it, anyone can. And the benefits are entirely worth the effort. Below are just a few.

#1 – As with grown-up food, fresh is always better than processed, both in terms of health and taste. Doubt it? Taste for yourself. Try the jarred bananas vs a freshly fork-mashed (so easy) banana. Or for a real treat, open up a grocery store jar of baby food “meat.” Whoa…

#2 – Significant cost savings. The first baby food veggie I ever made was a butternut squash. Out of one $3 squash, I got the equivalent of 20+ baby food jars. Do the math. Sweet!

#3 – Keeps extra jars, lids, and plastic/foil/cardboard packaging out of the global waste stream. Remember, recycle is the last option of “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” Trash reduction comes first, and making your own baby food is a great place to start.

Again, so worth the effort – and it’s not even that big an effort. I used to (and will again come May or June) take a Saturday afternoon and make up huge batches at a time to last most of the month. Or, you can take less time more often as you wish.

Click here for the website I found most helpful when first learning the basics (and for quick refreshers with each new baby since). For their informative page on organics, click here.